ERLING KRONER Instrumental facts


(for trombone freaks only)

My first trombone, acquired by my father in April 1959, was a beat up French Selmer of poor quality. My first 'real' instrument was an OLDS AMBASSADOR which eventually was replaced in 1963 by the love of my life, my first CONN 6H. At the time I was playing a BACH 11C mouthpiece, but my teacher, the renowned Palmer Traulsen of the Royal Danish Symphony Orchestra, urged me to change to a 12C, his own choice in mouthpiece. He just 'happened' to have one extra, so for 50 Danish Kroner we swapped mouthpieces, and that mouthpiece has been with me, off and on, ever since.
In 1967, on a gig with Melvis And His Gentlemen, a rock group I played with at the time, a wench, loaded with whatever, lost her balance dancing and came flying onto the stage right into my horn. That was the end of that. In Denmark it was not that easy to get a new horn right away, so I could only get hold of a CONN CONSTELLATION 48H, the hate of my life, it turned out to be. Luckily I found a new 6H about half a year later. It was different from my original one, but a great horn, which I played until 1970 when I, inspired by Jimmy Knepper's choice of horn, bought my first BACH 36 at Manny's in New York. I stayed with the BACH 36 for 27 years, eventually getting hold of a beautiful old Mt. Vernon BACH 36 from around 1958 in 1988, a horn I'll never part with. But for many years the thought of my original CONN 6H haunted me. I from time to time came across one, but it was never as I remembered. Until on a tour with the Beijbom Kroner Big Band in 1997 when our bass trombonist Niels Gerhardt picked up an old beat-up 6H from 1956 in a local store in a small town in Sweden. He let me try it out for him and I played it on the gig that evening. It was like getting home. Graciously he let me buy it from him and I was back. A few months later I lured another old, beat-up 6H from my friend Kjeld Ipsen (then of the Danish Radio Jazzorchestra). It's from around 1958 and has been modified. Though not indicated, the slide seems to be a special light-weight one, and the tuning slide is a modified version with a larger bore and different, rounded shape. Add to that a bell, which has been 'acid-ed' down (I recall Kai Winding telling me about a cat on the West Coast who was an expert on that) so the horn is very light and almost without resistance, which took quite a getting used to. So I was playing this CONN 6H with my original BACH 12C mouthpiece for quite a while. A little later I acquired yet another 6H, this one from my section mate in the BKBB, Calle Lindberg. It's an old Swedish army horn, silver plated (which I don't normally go for) but it played extremely well. A great horn of more resonant power, yet flexible.
     - Then again 27 years is a long time spent, and around March 1999 I was back on the Mt.Vernon 36 - Man, what an axe! Are you confused? - Well, join the family of confused, after all, what is one gonna do with two magnificent, but very different horns? Rejoice or despair. - Recorded a new cd in April of '99 with my 'Dream' Quintet on the 36 (April 27 & 28) and then celebrated the DUKE at a concert (29th) with the A-Team playing what? - my beloved 6H. Talking about confused!!
    - So . . . . . After 2 years away from my BACH, enjoying the quirks and charms of the CONNs, I settled, finally, with my BACH 36 for good (I thought). So that's it, then. Unfortunately I had sold my back-up Mt.Vernon, but was lucky to buy an old Elkhart off a dear collegue of mine, Flemming Andreassen of the Danish Radio Light Symphony Orchestra. He also sold me another old Mt.Vernon 12C mouthpiece.
    - And then again . . . . . lately I've been back on my quirky CONN 6H, and it's not quirky anymore, on the contrary, it behaves very nicely, so it seems to be touch and go, which trombone I'm playing.
    After having had a lot of good fun out of the 6H I finally abandoned it and returned to my wonderful Bach 36. And that's that! No more fooling around. But it's been good fooling around, 'cause I've learned a lot from playing the very charming 6H. Since January 2000 I've been playing Mondays with the new Monday Night Big Band at Paradise Jazz, Vognporten, Huset, Copenhagen. The band was inaugurated and is lead/conducted by Niels Jørgen Steen who also writes all the arrangements. The musicians have been hand-picked among the most talented / experienced jazz musicians with eyes to play music for the sake of playing it. I'm leading the trombone section and have three eminent colleagues with me, off and on: Vincent Nilsson of the Danish Radio Big Band, Kjeld Ipsen, formerly of the DRBB and Niels Gerhardt from The Orchestra and Beijbom Kroner Big Band on bass trombone. Due to the nature of a Monday Night Big Band, we have a lot of subs coming thru the band like real hot young players Peter Jensen (DRJO) and Peter Dahlgren (who now has taken over from Ipsen) alongside a couple of very talented young girl players Lea Gerhardt (now for Nilsson), Lis Wessberg, Annette Huseby (DRBB) and Mia Engsager. It is a very stimulating situation playing with other great players in a program of Niels Jørgen's enjoyable pennings. If you come by Copen hagen, check us out!
Kjeld Ipsen (X-mass 2001) came back form Spain and Portugal and came by the house to play duets and talk. He showed me his 'new' (35 years old) Bach 12, which I tried. He wanted to try out 'his' old 6H, and before we knew it, we had swapped horns, so now I've been trying out the 12 for quite some time, and it's very intriguing, 'cause I never cared for the smaller Bachs before, but this one just seems like a little brother to my 36 - a little tight at the shoulders - dig? Otherwise a perfect fit. Still very promising, excellent for lead playing and - hopefully - will live up to my expectations as a solo horn, which I will find out within the next coupla months as I will be doing some small group playing with my quintet and other smaller groups in the near future.
Well, September 2002 I played the 'Ipsen' 6H with the Monday Night Big Band - and bought it back from him on the spot! He was playing the old (pre 1955?) goldplated CONN 6H that he got from Bobby Burgess years ago. So I've finally settled with the custom-built 6H. We have a great repair-man in Cope, Herbert "Horn" Petersen, who gave the horn a good overhaul in October. Still needed some work, but I'd been busy, so I couldn't get the axe back to him. Hoped to get it fixed in January. (And I did, it is in 'fine' shape now)
December 15, 2003 at the Monday Night Big Band YuleTide Bash Vincent Nilsson sold me a CONN 6H from 1953 he found on ebay. Had it overhauled over X-Mass at Horn's. What a horn! Took a lot of breakin' in, though.
November 2006 got my Vocabell back from the repair shop where it had been sitting since 1989. Slide works now, and the horn is a real 'blower'. I'm considering using that horn for dedicated lead playing and solos in big bands. But my LW CONN 6H from 1956 remains my main axe. In January 2007 I sent the 1953 slide to the SlideDr, John Upchurch. Amazing! That impossible slide is now the best of the bunch! So I sent him the Vocabell slide . . . which I just got back, and plan on sending him the 1956 lw slide over soon, too. Dr. John is a magician. To top it all off I just (March 2007) had the amazing luck to find an original Al Cass T3 Milford, Mass. mouthpiece. Bought it from the son of the late Al Cass, Steve Cassinelli - pristine! All the benefits of the Al Cass T2 Made in England that used to be my favorite mouthpiece but minus the draw-backs. Am breaking it/myself in on the T3 these days. The feel, sound, response, plasticity is all I ever dreamed of. Will take me at least a few months to half a year to get it WITH/IN my body. Steve Cassinelli just sent me these photos of Al Cass - Alfred Cassinelli (actually CascIanelli) from his workshed with Dizzy and Sweets. Latest news: Steve just sent me the predecessor of the T3, a J1, which should be arriving shortly. How's that gonna taste?
All my horns have had the lacquer stripped off, a trick I learned from Eddie Bert in 1976. We were recording material for an LP two Sundays in a row at the Danish Radio Studio 3 and he showed me the new Olds he just picked up at the factory. (He played a Bach 16M prior to that). When he tried it, he loved it and wanted to take it away on the spot, but they said: 'It isn't ready yet, we still have the finishing and lacquer to take care of'. But Eddie didn't want that and took the horn as it was. And he told me if I took the lacquer off my horn it would get more responsive, articulate better, act faster, would get a brighter, fuller, but at the same time also darker sound(?) due to the fact that the overtones would not be hindered by the lacquer. I ripped it off (hard job) and played what seemed to be a very different kind of trombone the following Sunday. Since that day I've stripped the bells of all my horns and hand polish them. Thanks, Eddie!
(By the way the Monday Night Big Band plays September through April at the Paradise Jazz, 1.sal located at Huset in Copenhagen.)
November 26 2007:
End of a Love Affair - I'm Bach, no more CONNfusion
10 year long honeymoon with my beloved CONN 6H after divorcing my beloved MtVernon Bach 36 is over.
Started out in my youth (1963) on the love of my life CONN 6H. Left CONNie for Vinnie under the influence of Jimmy Knepper in 1970. Came back to CONNie 1997. Back to Bach week-and-a-half ago.
All the things I could have been by now if . . .
6H is just me. But restricting. Many things so natural. But I never got it to adhere to my 'wishes' (never would conform to my playing ideas/ways learned on the 36 through close to 30 years). Never managed to get the FLOW on CONNie that Vinnie allowed me. Restricting range-wise too.
After almost two weeks on Vinnie 36 my range is back (bach?), the fluidity is back, the super-fast, clean articulation.
CONNie gave me MY sound without working for it. Vinnie gives me any sound, but I work for it.
Played two big band gigs last week (solos/lead) on Vinnie. No pain. Cuts, carries, smooth like a mf in solos. My lines are back (bach?) Played concert with my own big band Saturday. Mostly conducting and playing the odd melody, solo, lead, picking up a cold horn. Butter.
But I feel I'm using a lot more body - physical power - to blow the Vinnie. But endurance/stamina is as ever. Just feel more like having been run over by a steam-roller next day. Other muscles, facial and bodial (how's that for a new word?) are being used to support Vinnie.
On the way out the door to do a live TV-broadcast in Sweden with our Epstein/Kroner Bari-Bone Connection early evening. Then hurry back to Monday Night Big Band in Cope (should barely be able to make it, time-wise
End of ramble
Some critical news! I just swapped my beautiful CONN 6H lw w/oversized tuning slide in near mint condition (for such an old lady) for a battered MtVernon Bach 34 which is currently in the shop being overhauled by Ulrich. Dents all over the place, bad repair-work, but a PLAYER of the same ilk as my 36, just lighter and slimmer sounding. Can't wait to get it back. Before Christmas 2008? See it in action here

 
Current Instruments:
BACH 34 Mt.Vernon (ca. 1958)
BACH 36 Mt.Vernon (ca. 1963)
CONN 44H Vocabell (ca. 1931) silver plated
 OLDS Marching Trombone (ca.1975)

Back-up Instruments:
CONN 6H Elkhart (ca. 1953) for sale
CONN 6H Elkhart (ca. 1956) for sale
BACH 12 Elkhart (ca. 1966) sold
out of commission:
CONN 24H TIS (ca. 1924) (irrepairable)

Page last modified December, 2008